Shire jumped to the top of the FTSE 100

Shire in the last year has transformed itself in into a leading specialist in drugs for treating rare diseases through a series of acquisitions, the peak of which it has been Baxalta in a $32bn takeover deal and now it is at the top of the FTSE 100 after it announced strong first quarter results. Sales were 109 per cent higher than the same period last year.

The Ireland-based company also got double-digit sales growth at its older businesses, with sales excluding Baxalta up 11 per cent.

Also Shire annouced that it is now prioritising cutting its $22bn debt pile that it is on track to meet its target of reducing debt . Furthermore the company said it is on track to meet previously-announced full-year product sales targets of between $14.5bn and $14.8bn, with diluted earnings per American depositary share of between $6.95 and $7.55 on a reported basis. Flemming Ornskov, Shire chief executive, said: “I am especially pleased to see that our sales growth came from across our broad portfolio, with genertic diseases growing 14 per cent, our recently launched Xiidra product achieving a 22 per cent market share and the Baxalta business growing at 8 per cent on a pro forma basis. We also improved our operational efficiency, and are ahead of plan on integrating Baxalta. Our priorities for the rest of 2017 remain unchanged: launching new products while driving commercial excellence, generating operational efficiencies, and advancing our pipeline of novel therapies. Additionally, we continue to prioritize paying down debt, and we are on track to achieve our full-year financial guidance”